Gears of War

Active reload turns reloading into a tight timing mini-game that feels satisfying. When reloading, a cursor swipes along a line: one zone gives a super fast reload, another adds a weapon boost, and anywhere else jams the gun.

Mark Brown groups it with counter attacks and Thumper's perfect turns as tight timing windows paired with a good sound effect. "Match a tight timing window with a good sound effect and you've won my heart forever."

Epic secretly boosted a clip's last bullets to help novices who skipped active reload. Experts hit perfect reloads and kept getting stronger bullets, so Epic made every enemy tougher, leaving beginners who ignored the mini-game outmatched. Epic noticed top players reload before the clip is empty while novices fire until it is dry, so it quietly made the last few rounds stronger, the 'magic bullets', which in practice only novices received.

The lesson Brown draws: a skill-based bonus needs a counterpart for players who don't engage with it, or difficulty tuned around experts punishes everyone else, and watching how different player groups behave can reveal the fix. "The devs secretly boosted the power of the last few bullets in a clip."

A cover system removes positioning as a decision, simplifying combat choices. Brown cites Gears 5 among shooters whose cover system means players often don't need to think about position, leaving three questions at a time instead of DOOM Eternal's four.

"A cover system means you often don't need to think about your position, simplifying the mental load to only three questions at a time."

Remapping, a follow camera and left-stick aiming made Gears 5 one-handed playable. Mark Brown named Gears 5 the accessibility MVP of 2019's biggest games because those options meant "you can basically play the game with one hand".

Gears 5 subtitles sound cues so deaf players get the same information. Its all-clear music sting is captioned as 'music settles', so players who can't hear it still know the fight is over.

Brown contrasts this with Resident Evil 2, where Mr. X is trackable only by his footsteps and which CanIPlayThat called virtually unplayable early on for deaf and hard of hearing players.

Active reload turns reloading into a tight timing mini-game that feels satisfying. When reloading, a cursor swipes along a line: one zone gives a super fast reload, another adds a weapon boost, and anywhere else jams the gun.

Mark Brown groups it with counter attacks and Thumper's perfect turns as tight timing windows paired with a good sound effect. "Match a tight timing window with a good sound effect and you've won my heart forever."